‘If I was a man, they would have never had the same thoughts ’

It was a Wednesday in April at the Blockhouse Bar, whose weekly call-and-response was a staple of the Bloomington jazz scene. A handful of IU jazz studies faculty played beneath the bar’s signature dim lighting to a small, densely-packed audience. Among them was Leah Warman, one of a handful of female students in the jazz studies program when she was pursuing her master’s degree last year. She had carefully curated her makeup and clothes to help her feel confident as she networked with her colleagues and faculty, but now said she felt overdressed and out of place among the majority male crowd.

“Hangs” like call-and-response at the Blockhouse are viewed by some as essential to the education of jazz students — perhaps even more important than practicing, homework or rehearsals. Building musical expertise is one thing, but physical performances offer the opportunity to build connections, which is critical to career advancement in fields like music.

Jazz faculty member John Raymond rotated between his trumpet and sips of beer, his melody in conversation with the saxophone, piano, bass and drums behind him. Enveloped in the moment, the musicians bent and swayed, raised their brows and bit their lips in concentration.

Improvisation is at the heart of jazz. One wrong move, a fleeting doubt, and the moment crumbles. But taking the risk and pulling it off can make a crowd go wild.

The audience at the Blockhouse clapped and hollered. Warman joined the applause but couldn’t shake the feeling of isolation that had followed her through her master’s program at Jacobs. Even now, with a graduate degree at one of the best music programs in the country and a jazz album ready for release, she was still struggling to get Raymond to help her book her debut at the Blockhouse. As other potential avenues to booking dried up, she went through the owner of the Blockhouse and wondered about the point of the connections she’d built in Jacobs.

After months of requests, Raymond finally got back to her about booking in mid-May. Warman’s album, which focuses on challenging stereotypes regarding femininity in jazz, was released Aug. 15 on Spotify.

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Today, most jazz industry musicians are men.

Women musicians were not featured on almost two-thirds of 2019’s top jazz albums and led or co-led only 21% of the albums, according to NPR’s Jazz Critics Poll.

The disparity is perhaps more stark in jazz education. According to the Jacobs School of Music website, only two of 11 jazz faculty are women; female students are similarly rare. One additional female adjunct lecturer is listed on the 2024-25 bulletin, which lists 13 jazz faculty.

Part of the gap may be due to stereotypes around the masculine nature of jazz, Warman explained, evoked in the aggression and confidence associated with improvisation. It’s a concept backed up by research, which found male students tended to be more confident and less anxious regarding improvisation than women.

For Warman, learning and performing in a male-dominated environment made her feel like she was rotating through a host of stereotypes in the eyes of her peers: sex object, token woman, underdog or a “phenomenon.” Over time, it became a significant burden.

“All these people who I’m looking up to musically and professionally are kind of sometimes falling short in some areas that are really important to women,” she said. “It’s very conflicting.”

Healing from the past two years at IU has been slow and difficult, Warman said, set back by the allegations against Demondrae Thurman. Thurman was involved with the Bloomington jazz scene as well, she said, including playing with multiple IU jazz professors in the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra.

The news of sexual misconduct within the industry felt neverending to her.

In a discipline where connections with faculty and peers can make or break a career, she explained, a stereotypical or dehumanizing view of women can make it difficult for female students to thrive.

“If I was a man, they would have never had the same thoughts that they had when they see me,” Warman said.

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